We have spent some time in Revelation 16 the last few weeks. It says in Revelation 16:8-12:
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
I will stop reading there.
We were looking at the word “scorched.” We saw how this identifies with the parable in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 where the sun rises and brings a blazing heat. When seed falls on stony ground, it is able to scorch the seed because it has no depth of earth; it has no root.
We saw that this is referring to a person who does not have Christ, because Christ is the root of Jesse. He is the root that must be within every professed child of God. If someone does not have Christ but they have a profession, then they have faith without works, like James says, and this is vain. We need our faith, our profession, and we need Christ’s work.
We need the work that Christ did in paying the penalty for the sins of His people. If we do not have this, then we are left with those who say, “Lord, Lord,” and Jesus will respond, “I never knew you. Depart from Me.”
We cannot get around this. There is no way around the fact that we need to be born again. We also have to deal with the fact that it is not possible today to be born again if someone is not already. This would have to have been something that God did prior to May 21.
So we entered into this Day of Judgment. We moved from the great tribulation of judgment on the church to judgment on the world. God was judging the church in the sense that He removed His Holy Spirit. There was no salvation in any church in the world for 23 years.
This judgment has expanded now to include the whole world. There is no place on earth now where a person can go and find salvation. This is the great heat of Judgment Day. It is a fiery time of trial and this is scorching those who never had Christ.
The day will reveal this; the day is declaring it. If someone does not have Christ, they are nothing but wood, hay, and stubble, and they will be burned up. They will be consumed by this spiritual fire.
There is a literal fire that comes at the last day of the five months, which will be October 21. This will be when God destroys the whole earth and universe. This is when He will destroy the whole creation by fire.
Up until then, we are in a period of spiritual fire that is likened to a time of great heat. The sun is really a picture of affliction and tribulation for the Word’s sake, and many are becoming offended by the truth of the Gospel.
It says again in Revelation 16:9:
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God…
Then it says again in Revelation 16:10-11:
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness…
This means that there is no light of the Gospel anywhere in the world.
It continues:
…and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores…
We are familiar with this word “blasphemed” or “blasphemy.” We read in Mark 3 and in several other places, “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness.” God has said that to commit blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the one sin that there is no forgiveness for.
So when we see this word “blaspheme,” for some people this is frightening and for other people this is mysterious. What is blasphemy? What is it to blaspheme God? Here in Revelation 16, they are blaspheming the name of God; they are blaspheming the God of Heaven.
To see what blasphemy is, let us look at a couple of verses. I think that we will be able to define this, because this word is not always translated as “blasphemy.”
We read in 1 Corinthians 4:12-13:
And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we entreat…
“Defamed” is the word “blasphemy.” Some people are famous and some people are defamed. Some people are spoken very highly of. The world loves certain ones; but others, no, they are not thought of well and they are not spoken of well. They are defamed. Another way of looking at this is character assassination.
I think that this gets even clearer if we go to 2 Peter 2. We will find this same word “blasphemy” translated another way. 2 Peter 2 is a chapter that has a lot to say about false prophets. We read in 2 Peter 2:10:
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
Where do we find the word “blasphemy”? It is “speak evil of.” In the English, these three words, “speak evil of,” are the Greek word that is translated “blasphemed/blasphemy.”
Then it goes on to say in 2 Peter 2:11-12:
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
This word is translated several times as “speak evil of.”
We also find this in Jude. Again, false prophets are in view. We read in Jude 1:8:
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Then we read in Jude 1:10:
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
What is it talking about when it says that they speak evil of what they know not but what they know naturally? This is referring to doctrine. This is referring to spiritual things from the Bible.
Remember that 1 Corinthians 2 tells us that we have to compare spiritual with spiritual in order to come to truth and that it is then that the Holy Ghost teacheth. This is how we know that it is God who is teaching us and that it is not out of man’s mind or private interpretation. Following this statement in 1 Corinthians 2, it says in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So the natural man is an unsaved individual who is identified with the Gospel somehow. Do not just think about those in the church. Think of anyone who is identified with the Gospel. Think in terms of anyone who is a professed Christian, in the church or out of the church, who is not saved.
This man begins to hear things from the Bible and he does not agree with them. Does this cause him to blaspheme God? Well, 99.9% of the time, this kind of individual would never say something bad about God. He would never curse God or blame God. He would never say that God is foolish. Things that he would say about doctrine, he would never say about God Himself.
Because of this, these people think that they praise God and that they love Him. They thank God and they would never think to blaspheme God. They therefore believe that this is something that they do not have to worry about.
On the other hand, they hear certain doctrines and teachings. We are very familiar with Family Radio, so let us use them as an example. They hear a teaching coming from Family Radio about the end of the church age. This was broadcast for years. Again and again, this teaching would come and verses would be referred to, here a little, there a little, Scripture with Scripture. As people did this and made sure that all of their conclusions harmonized, “the Holy Ghost teacheth.”
How was this received by many in the churches? They thought that this whole idea was blasphemy. They thought that this was heretical. They thought that this was from Satan. They thought that this was in no way connected with the God of the Bible.
After all, who understands the command to flee Judaea when they see the “abomination of desolation” as representing the church? They cry, “Come on!” Judaea was a nation back in the first century A.D. They think that this command had to do with the destruction of Judaea back in 70 A.D.
How are they thinking? They are thinking naturally. They are thinking historically. They are thinking of the facts that they know about. This is because this is how the natural mind works. They do not get this. They do not understand that God uses Judaea as a picture and a type and a figure of the New Testament churches and congregations. When He says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation…stand in the holy place…then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains,” this is telling people who professed to be Christians that they were to get out of the church.
Many, many of the teachings were spiritually discerned. If you remember, we went through the book of Jeremiah, an historical book dealing with Judah and its destruction by Babylon. The churches think that this has nothing to do with the church, and so they speak evil of this whole idea and revile it and defame anyone who would declare this. In doing so, they are blaspheming God.
We can understand that blasphemy is to “speak evil of,” and so when people speak evil of doctrine that comes from the Bible, who is it that gave this doctrine? Whose teaching is this? As spiritual with spiritual is compared, it is the Holy Ghost who teaches and the Holy Ghost is God.
So if time and care have been taken and Scripture has been compared with Scripture and a doctrine is presented and this doctrine is vilified and this doctrine is ridiculed and this doctrine is put down and anyone who would dare to bring this is thought of as a heretic, and so forth, God takes this personally.
He sent His people. They were messengers. That is all. They were ambassadors on His behalf. They were just individuals who were following His methodology and who had their eyes opened up to these truths by Him. When these things are being declared, He is the One who is really being defamed. He is the One who is being evil spoken of.
Remember that God tells us in a parable that He sent His servants. Some were mistreated this way and others were mistreated that way. Then finally, He sent His Son; but His servants were all representatives of Him. If someone mistreats His representatives or His messengers, they are mistreating Him. This is why God began the judgment on the churches.
We could go on with the doctrines and the things that God saved for the period of the great tribulation and how now the Book is fully opened and the seals are completely off. For example, Christ being slain before the foundation of the world is very disturbing to some people and they speak evil of this doctrine, or they speak evil of annihilation. They speak evil of this or that or the other thing and of those who brought these doctrines, especially those who brought the message of May 21.
This is now continuing into this period for those who are saying that May 21 was Judgment Day. But this has to be understood in what way? This has to be understood spiritually. God brought judgment on May 21 and this has to be discerned spiritually.
Well, the same people who do not understand spiritual things and who do not recognize Judaea in the churches are dealing with the same thing when they do not understand the spiritual judgment that came on May 21 and that God has brought judgment on the world, which is that no more will He ever again save a sinner who has not already become saved. This, too, is spoken evil of and spoken against.
Okay; let us go to Revelation 16:12. It says:
And the sixth angel [messenger] poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates…
The Euphrates is one of the rivers that set the boundary of Israel. What was another boundary?
Go to Genesis 15 where God is giving promise to Abram. It says in Genesis 15:18:
In the same day JEHOVAH made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
So from Egypt’s river to the river Euphrates was a boundary that God was setting. Remember that it was in the great river Euphrates where the four messengers were bound in Revelation 9. These are actually the 200 million who were bound. We saw there that this was a synonym for Babylon.
It has been pointed out that Euphrates is a boundary marker of Israel or of the Kingdom of God. But when God said in Revelation 9 that they are “bound in the great river Euphrates,” the boundary marker is not in the river; it is unto the river. Therefore, God wanted us to understand something different there. It is Babylon. Do not think about it in association with the Kingdom of God.
The other thing is that we should notice that one boundary is “the river of Egypt.” Who does this river belong to? It belongs to Egypt. It is “of Egypt,” but it is a boundary of the Kingdom of God. Euphrates is the other river. Who does this river belong to? It belongs to Babylon. That is Babylon’s river.
God is showing us here that He can use a river that is actually in other’s possession as a marker, as a limit. They could go only so far. That was their land. That was the Promised Land.
So Euphrates is really the river of Babylon; and here in Revelation 16, God is indicating that the great river Euphrates will be dried up. Babylon, at this point, is representing the whole world.
Let us look at a verse that really confirms that this is what is in view. We read in Jeremiah 51:35-36:
The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
God is speaking to Babylon because Jeremiah 50 and 51 is the judgment upon Babylon. It is the vengeance for His temple, which means that the temple had to have been destroyed in order for God to take vengeance upon it.
This indicates that Babylon is not referring to the church, because the church is that temple that was destroyed, that Babylon destroyed. But God is now turning around and saying, “You destroyed My temple; I will destroy you.”
This is just as He used Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to destroy Judah and the temple, to bring about that whole captivity. Then at the end of 70 years, the Lord turns around and punishes the king of Babylon for what he did. This is because even though God used him, what was done was really sinful on the part of Nebuchadnezzar and his army, historically, to go against God’s people. Spiritually, it is sinful, of course, for Satan to relish, as he has done, over the destruction of the churches and congregations of the world.
All God did was loose him and let him be himself as He removed His hand of restraint. Because of this, Satan has brought great destruction to the whole church world. But at the end of that period, the end of the great tribulation that just happened on May 21, God then turns around and judges Satan and judges the church or his emissaries for what they have done due to the way that they have destroyed His temple.
Here in Jeremiah 51:36, the vengeance is:
…I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
This is referring to the world, not the church. It is in the world that God is doing this.
What water is this referring to? Revelation 16 says that it is a river. This says it is the sea and the springs. Actually, this is the seas of the world, it is the rivers, it is the lakes, it is the ponds, it is the creeks, and it is the puddles of the earth. All of these are now dry. They are all dry. There is no water anywhere for a sinner if he is still in his sins. There is no water.
This is just exactly like the rich man who found himself in haides. What did he want? Where was he? God says that he was in torment, and we are in five months of torment. He wanted a drop of water. He was even willing to allow Lazarus, that beggar who was full of sores, to just put a drop of water on his finger so that he could come and just touch it to his tongue. He was willing to accept this, but what was the response? The response was that this was not possible because there was “a great gulf fixed between us and you so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.”
We can now understand this because there are people who would desire to bring the Gospel to sinners. We do not enjoy this; we do not like that we cannot tell someone in their sins, “Cry to God and perhaps He will save you.” But we cannot. There is a great gulf fixed. Likewise, no one can from thence reach over into the Kingdom of Heaven. The gulf is the judgment of God and that all of the water is dried up.
Remember what God said in Revelation 18 concerning Babylon and His judgment upon it. We read in Revelation 18:22-23:
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters…
All of this relates to declaring the Gospel. It continues:
…shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee…
And we can say, “The Gospel water that can save a sinner will be found no more at all in thee. It is dried up.”
We had thought that this would be because God would have taken His Bride and removed Himself and us from the earth. But no, the key is that these things “shall be heard no more at all in thee.”
The Bible tells us that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” and God has determined that no one ever again will hear. He will not open up the deaf ears any longer to the message of the Gospel. If you have not yet been given ears to hear, you never will. It will no longer be heard in thee because this is a famine of hearing.
This began in the church and we know full well what this meant, and now this is in relation to the whole earth. All the world is now experiencing this famine, which is what God declared would happen. We can just take a look at His judgment on the churches to see what is going on with the whole world today.
Going back to Revelation 16, the great river Euphrates is dried up and this is interesting. This is interesting because we have historical examples of God drying up waters. For instance, we read in Joshua 3:14-17:
And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of JEHOVAH stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
So this is one occasion. This took place in 1407 B.C. After wandering 40 years in the wilderness, God brought Israel to the brink of the Promised Land. Then He dried up the river Jordan and they crossed over Jordan.
What was the other occasion? It was 40 years earlier. When they came out of Egypt, they went to the Red Sea. Again, God divided the water. The water stood as a wall on either side, and God’s people crossed over the Red Sea. This allowed them to escape their enemies, which we will look at later. And, again, God makes the point that they crossed over as on dry ground. His reference to “dry ground” is very interesting. It was in 1447 B.C. that this happened.
So we have two very major historical examples of God bringing His people to a certain point. In one case, they were brought to a point where the only thing that would save them from the Egyptians was to cross the sea. If they had remained where they were, Pharaoh and the Egyptians would have destroyed them. In the other case, it was to receive the promised inheritance. The Promised Land lay on the other side of the Jordan and God used that point in time to dry up the sea.
There are a couple of other instances in the book of 2 Kings where Elijah and Elisha were going from place to place. This was right before Elijah was taken up. He was raptured. Right before then, Elijah used his mantle and parted the river Jordan. Elijah and Elisha crossed over. Then Elijah was taken up. On the way back, Elisha used Elijah’s mantle and did the very same thing. The river Jordan parted again and he crossed over.
This was much more minor because this only involved two men. In these other cases, it was the whole nation of Israel who came out of Egypt, every last one of them, and the whole surviving nation who endured the wilderness, those who were twenty and under and who were born during the wilderness sojourn, who were at the river Jordan and who finally crossed over.
Let us go back to Revelation 16:12 again where we read of the great river Euphrates, which, again, is a synonym for the great city Babylon. We read in Revelation 16:12:
…and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
So the water of Babylon dries up first. This drying of the waters is preparation for the kings of the east. This is the way that they have to go. Apparently, they cannot go any other way. They have to go through dry ground. They cannot cross over the river Euphrates.
By the way, again, this shows that Euphrates is Babylon’s river because, obviously, they are going from Babylon to the Kingdom of God. They are not on the Kingdom of God’s side of this river and crossing over to Babylon. That is not the picture. It is those in Babylon or those in the world who want to get out of there. As every child of God wants, they want to enter into the Promised Land. On the other side of this river Euphrates is the land that was promised to Abraham, the land that typifies Heaven itself.
So here are these “kings of the east,” and we will try to identify them in a little bit. But first, let us look at the word “prepared.” If we go to Mark 14, we read in Mark 14:12-14:
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
Here, they went to prepare the last supper in the upper room. What did they do? They set the table. They got the food ready. They made all of the necessary preparations so that they could come and have the last supper. All would be ready when Jesus would come with His disciples.
This is one usage of the word “prepared.” We also find this word in Revelation 19. We read in Revelation 19:7:
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
“Ready” is the word “prepare.” The wife is ready.
How is the wife ready? The wife is the elect. She is made up of the entire body of the elect, the whole company of the saints. She made herself ready because it was the elect whom God gave the Gospel to in order to carry the message to the world where other elect were. When they heard, they became saved. It was the elect who were involved in the last of God’s chosen people hearing the message and becoming saved.
So, in a sense, we made ourself ready, just like a bride preparing for her marriage. She gets her dress ready and her makeup and everything else. She has had all of these preparations to make and she makes them all complete. It is all done and she is ready to walk down the aisle. Likewise, God has saved all of His people and all are ready. All are prepared because He has saved them all.
If we look at this, everything is in place for the return of Christ. Everything. There is no need for the Gospel to go out in order that people be saved, because they are already safely in. There is no need for any further preparation. The only thing that God had left was the judgment, the five months of judgment to bring judgment on this world.
This is what Revelation 16 is referring to when it says that the water of the Euphrates River is dried up. The drying up is pointing to the judgment of God, which is that none can enter into the temple anymore. The smoke has filled the temple and no man can enter in. All have been saved. Everyone whose name was found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life has been gathered and this is what completely dries all of the waters.
It is amazing to realize what happened from one day to the next. On May 20th, the Gospel was going out into all the earth like the waters cover the sea. There was water everywhere. There was plenteous, abundant mercy. There was abundant grace. There was this abundant message. People could turn on their radio or the computer or pick up a Bible. They could hear this message many different ways. This was all over the earth. It was on signs. It was finally carried to the forefront of just about every human being’s eyes. It was placed right in front of their eyes: Judgment Day – May 21!
Then we moved into the next day. Judgment Day came and God turned off all of the flowing brooks and streams and waters. He is the One who sent rivers into the dessert and into the wilderness. He is the One whose waters issued forth from His throne into this earth. He is in full control of sending it and He is in full control of stopping it, which He has now. He has made this to cease and the waters now have dried, and this was all an act of preparation for the kings of the east.
In relation to “kings,” let us go to Psalm 144. This is not a verse that I would normally go to in order to show this, but I noticed it this past week. We read in Psalm 144:10:
It is he that giveth salvation unto kings…
God gives salvation to “kings.” This does not mean that we have to be a king in order to receive salvation. Actually, the truth is that very few kings who have historically reigned over nations received salvation. We know of David and Josiah, and so there were some. But, spiritually, He gives salvation to kings, as we read in Revelation 1:5-6:
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
He has made us kings. He is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” He is the One seated upon the heavenly throne. When He saves a person, we are immediately, spiritually, transported into heavenly places to be seated in Him and His seat is a throne.
This is why He says in Matthew 19:28:
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
He has the throne and God’s people are also said to be on thrones because we are kings, too. We are of royal blood. We have been adopted into the family of God. If a king is your father, this makes you a prince and you also could reign in this world. But God looks at all of His people as kings, spiritually. He made us this way when He saved us.
Look at Revelation 5:10:
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
This is not talking about this earth. This is talking about the new earth. God left this little detail out, but this is how He wrote the Bible. He always leaves a little bit of this and a little bit of that, so that people who do not know how He wrote the Bible will be confounded; but this is referring to the new earth.
Remember what it says in Revelation 20 of the souls who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. It says in the last part of Revelation 20:4:
…neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
They reign with Him. Who reigns but rulers and kings?
In this case, the thousand years is pointing to the completeness of what is in view, which is eternity. Once God’s people are saved, they are lifted up into heavenly places and highly exalted. We are all like Lazarus the beggar in that we are lowly. He exalts us up into the heavens and into a glorious position.
In the parable of the talents, when one did well with a certain amount of talents he was told to come and rule over five cities; and another who did well was told to come and rule over two cities. Then there was one who came who was afraid and did not do well. Of course, he was under God’s judgment. But God commends the other two. They did well and He indicates that they will rule.
Remember that God is the great Creator who has been creating long before this earth. In all likelihood, there are a tremendous number of creations out there that are full of creatures and principalities and powers that we do not know anything about. It is not in outer space. This is beyond the limits and the boundaries of this whole creation including our universe. This is out there.
Keep in mind that kings normally set their sons upon thrones and provinces, like King Ahasuerus or the other kings. They would have so many provinces and they would put their sons over these provinces. They did this because they trusted their sons more than they would trust someone who was not related to them. Then their sons would rule on behalf of their father or on behalf of the king.
This is why I think that this is probably likely what God will do with His people, His 200 million sons and daughters; but there are no males or females in Heaven; they are just His children. He will take His children, since they have all done well, and He will give them rule. This is what I think as I just put some things together. I do not know how much we can count on this, but He might give His children rule over these principalities and jurisdictions of these other creations.
Going back to Revelation 16 where we read of the great river Euphrates, the water is dried up in order that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
So we have the historical example of the Red Sea drying up. We have the historical example of the Jordan River drying up. Then we have the historical example of the whole body of God’s people, the nation of Israel, crossing over into safety and deliverance in the case of the Red Sea and over into the Promised Land in the case of the Jordan.
We now find this here in Revelation 16 in which the context is speaking of these five months. This is speaking of the judgment of God that is going on right now. Everything that we have looked at points to this. The drying up of the river Euphrates fits in perfectly with the drying up of the Gospel waters all across the earth. This is another verse that confirms what we have been reading in many other places.
God is indicating that there are kings of the east and He typifies His believers as kings. Why of the east? Why this direction? This is because this is the direction of God. When the wise men saw His star, it was in the east. When lightning comes, which is likened to Christ’s coming, it shines from east to west. It comes out of the east, and so the judgment of God comes forth from the east. Where does the sun rise? It rises in the east. Who is typified by the sun? The Lord Jesus. We read in Psalm 84:11 that He is “a sun and shield.” The waters of the temple in Ezekiel flow from the east.
There are many other verses that we could go to. We are kings not of this world. Where is our kingdom? It is in the east where God is, where the Kingdom of Heaven is. We are kings of the east and God has made full preparation for us at this time to begin crossing.
So this means that, right now, we are up against the river. We are up against the Red Sea. This is where we really are. If we look at this spiritually, we have our backs to the Sea. We realize that May 21 was that great day of deliverance. God released all of the captives and all the slaves of Egypt. We came out, but were we taken right up into Heaven? Was all well immediately when Israel came out of Egypt? Did they go immediately to the Promised Land? Why not since it was near? This is what God tells us.
He says in Exodus 13:17:
And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near…
He could have done this, but He did not do things that way. He had a two-part deliverance from Egypt. Once they crossed the Red Sea, they just had to endure the wilderness. It was not the Egyptians who were bothering them anymore.
As far as deliverance from Egypt, they came out on that first day as they left the gates of Egypt. Then they spent some time in a couple of encampments. Then they went and camped by the Red Sea. It was then when their backs were up against the sea that God says this of Pharaoh in Exodus 14:3:
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
The word “shut in” is the same word used in Genesis 7 when God shut in Noah and his family. Genesis 7 does not say “door.” It just says that He “shut him in.” Obviously, this was the door.
In every place where God uses this word, it is normally referring to a door or a gate; but at times, context determines what it is. Here in Exodus, God tells us what shut them in and it was the wilderness. It was the landscape. They had trapped themselves.
It is probably not good to make reference to movies; but in the Ten Commandments, after learning that they were encamped by the Red Sea, Pharaoh said that Moses’ God was a poor general. This was because they were left with no way out, with no way to retreat.
This is what played on the minds of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, because God is saying that this is what Pharaoh is going to think. He is going to think that they are entangled in the land and that the wilderness has shut them in.
We shake our heads at Pharaoh. This man! How stubborn! How hard-hearted! How stupid can he be? After personally witnessing God destroy his whole nation and bring him to his knees and force him to release the people, how could he get it in his mind to go after them again?
Well, when God removes His hand of restraint, we find that we are pretty stupid and stubborn. I think that our stupidity knows no bounds in the things that we can do that are just foolish, as compared to what we should be doing.
God just lifted His hand back a little further, and so Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. He thought that he was a great general, because he still had an army. A lot of them were most likely dead since all of the firstborn of Egypt were killed, but he could still think about the fact that he still had chariots and horses and men. After all, they were the mighty nation of Egypt, the power of all of the earth at that time. There was Israel and, obviously, their God had left them. He must have left them. They were entangled in the land. If they had this all-powerful God guiding them, He would not have led them to where they were, would He have?
We are speculating a little here, but Pharaoh must have been thinking about their circumstances, which must have led him to think militarily about their position. Then all of a sudden, they start thinking something that we read about in Exodus 14:5:
And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
At this time, it is not just Pharaoh, is it? It is his servants, too.
This is really just the heart of man. This is just mankind. To put it kindly, we are so unwise. And they were so unwise to think that they could overcome God. This is what it gets down to. They were just thinking in terms of the Israelites, who were the people of God. Really, they were against God Himself, but they determined to go after them.
Notice this emphasis in Exodus 14:7:
And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Then we read in Exodus 14:9:
But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh…
Then look at Exodus 14:17:
And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
Pharaoh did not leave any. He got together the entire Egyptian army. He thought that he would need every one of them. Then he marched out of Egypt, right for the Red Sea, with chariots and with horses and with men. Pharaoh was with them and they were headed directly for Israel at that encampment in order to destroy them.
We have talked about this before, but this is spiritually pointing to Satan, represented by Pharaoh, and his kingdom. The Egyptians point to all unsaved men.
We can show this. Look at Exodus 14:13:
And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
Finally, the cruel Pharaoh and the Egyptian host will be gone. They have afflicted Israel. They were cruel taskmasters. They just lorded this over them for years and for centuries. God finally has a plan to rid Israel from them. Never again would they see those Egyptians that they saw on that day marching on their heels. After awhile, they could have looked over and have seen that army, but God told them that they would see them again “no more for ever.”
Remember what we read in Revelation 18:21:
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
It will be found no more. This will be it. Once He does this, then never again will they be.
Remember that God likened what happened to Egypt in Nehemiah 9:11:
And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
This is as we read in Revelation 18:21:
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
So God is identifying what happened to the Egyptians in the Red Sea with what He intends to do to Babylon, and Babylon is a representation of the whole world. But first, He has to part the sea. First, He has to turn the waters dry. And so Moses stretched out his arm. But did the sea dry instantly? No; this went on all that night. It took all that night before the waters began to part and became a wall. This was not instantaneous. This was something that God did over the course of hours.
We will stop here.